A photovoltaic (“PV”) device or element, as used herein, means any device incorporating a material that generates electrical current from incident radiation. Current is drawn from the device via the device positive electrode and negative electrode.
Flexible photovoltaic filaments are known in the art, as described for example in Patent Application Publication U.S. 2007/0079867 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,622,667, to Chittibabu, which are incorporated by reference.
While the aforesaid Chittibabu disclosures contemplate incorporating PV filaments into a fabric, to date there has not been a viable means for busing the electrical current generated by a plurality of PV filaments in a fabric, or for incorporating the filaments into a fabric to construct parallel and series circuits to obtain a desired voltage and current.